Israel builds innovation bridges with local startups
THE Embassy of Israel in the Philippines, in partnership with Ideaspace-qbo Innovation Hub (QBO), hosted the “Qlitan Networking Night” to motivate and boost the startup industry in the Philippines.
“Israel is known as the ‘startup nation,’ with over 6,000 active startups,” Ambassador Ilan Fluss said in his opening remarks. “We have built a strong ecosystem joined by various innovation key players, [and] even shifting…to build a ‘smart-up nation’ to sustain innovation and prepare in addressing future challenges.”
As the startup nation, Fluss added that Israel would like to share its success story and create partnerships with the innovation community in the Philippines: “We have to build bridges of innovation between our countries to contribute to addressing the development challenges of the Philippines.”
Around 50 Filipino founders of local startup companies and investors participated in the networking night. The event aimed to connect Philippine startups and key players of the innovation community, and to come up with a collaboration between similar endeavors by Filipinos and Israelis. The night also featured a net café session, where startup founders engaged with Israeli businessmen and officials to exchange views and best practices in the industry, as well as find ways to work together.
“We need to build a bridge between our two countries, so that startups can benefit and gain business,” said Butch Meily, president of Ideaspace Foundation and QBO, the Philippines’s first public-private partnership platform for Filipino startups led by the Ideaspace Foundation. It is supported by the JP Morgan Foundation, the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Trade and Industry. QBO connects and develops the local start-up ecosystem.
Benny Schlick, founder and managing director of Innovation Without Borders, joined the networking via Zoom and shared the Israeli innovation ecosystem’s recipe.
Fluss also announced during the event that Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez signed an agreement with the chair of Israel’s innovation authority for cooperation in technological innovation, as well as research and development.
“With this, we are opening more bridges to partner with you, and build a stronger startup industry,” Fluss shared.